Bold Blossom Shop became Abby Ortega’s livelihood.
Newlywed Milwaukee Artist Abby Ortega, formerly known as Abby Orgas, began crafting her small business, Bold Blossom Shop, at a coffee table in Madison, Wis. Today, she works full-time out of a studio space in her Milwaukee apartment to fulfill the vast amount of orders that resulted from her success.
Ortega, 25, uses aqua-resin to create home decor pieces and polymer clay to design sets of earrings and charms. After she has sculpted the unbaked clay, she finishes the tiny, tedious accessories by baking them in her kitchen oven and adding a varnish.
The polymer clay medium is a technique Ortega has practiced since she was a child. Before earrings and charms, she was making figurines at 7-years-old.
“I feel like I’ve always — even when I was a kid, I loved making things,” Ortega said. “I think the really formative years for me were my high school years. I took as many art classes as I could, and it kind of became more of a creative outlet for me.”
In 2019 she transferred to UW-Madison and graduated in 2021 with her art degree.
“I was going to school for art education and the semester when the pandemic started, I had just starting student teaching,” Ortega said. “I was also working as a preschool assistant teacher at that time. I loved it but when I started student teaching, I quickly realized that it just wasn’t the right path for me.”
After leaving teaching behind and switching majors, Ortega was not sure of what life post graduation would look like.
In early July, she moved to Milwaukee and made Bold Blossom Shop her “full-time gig.”
“Typically, I start with a color palette,” Ortega said. “I like to do collections and drops one or two times a month. I start with the color palette and then I kind of make the collection based on that. I try to do a variety of charms, bigger statement earrings and studs. I really like to have something for everyone — playing with different patterns.”
Bold Blossom Shop’s name came as a catchy play on the theme of Ortega’s art. Her use of vibrant colors and floral patterns is seen throughout her shop.
“Something a lot of people tell me when I do in-person markets is that they see my booth or my work, and it just makes them happy, so I kind of go off of that and tend to gravitate toward the bright colors and just have fun with it,” Ortega said.
Her goal is to continue to expand her shop through new ideas and participation in in-person markets.
“I really like getting to meet customers in person and getting my work out there and into the community,” Ortega said.